Walk in the forest

Two figures walk side by side through a forested area in dim light. The figure on the right is a tall beautiful woman. Silken brown hair flows over her shoulders and covers the upper portion of her voluptuous chest. She wears a loose black dress that hides the rest of her figure. Her face is completely relaxed and is adorned with a gentle smile. Her almond brown eyes are completely fixated on the much smaller figure on her left holding her hand.

The smaller figure is a young boy who has to raise his arm over his head in order to hold onto the woman's hand. He constantly rotates his head to examine his surroundings. His short tousled deep blue hair moves with every motion of his head. Dark violet eyes burn with curiosity as they try and fit the whole stretch of the forest into his narrow vision.

The two figures are Melinda and her son Kael. It had been 2 years since Melinda first picked Kael up from the forest.

When Melinda first brought Kael home, she had a couple of problems to deal with when raising him. First, since Melinda never gave birth so she was not lactating. She had to find some other way to feed Kael. Her friend Cheryl had initially offered to nurse him, but she ended not producing enough milk for both Kael and her daughter Emi. In the end, Melinda chose to gingerly spoon feed Kael with some cow's milk from the market.

Second, Melinda initially lived in the brothel she owned, a place unsuited for children. She bought the building next to the brothel and converted it into a new home. Kael and Emi would be kept in the home during business hours and would usually be watched over by one of the off-duty courtesans or Melinda at any given moment. It was in this manner that Kael and Emi grew closer to the courtesans.

Some rumors also started to spread about who was the father of the Kael. Melinda is regarded as the most beautiful woman in this remote town on the frontier and many people wanted to try and court her. She was also regarded as the most fearsome woman in town and many people who tried to step on her toes when she first opened the brothel still don't walk straight to this day.

Kael has started walking a few months ago and Melinda had decided that it was time for him to start experiencing the world.

Kael and Melinda walk past a darker part of the forest as Kael shifts his mesmerizing purple eyes on Melinda and asks, "Mama, what are we doing here?"

"Well, Kael, now that you are old enough to walk on your own two feet, it's time for you to learn and experience more about the world as a whole."

"Like what?" Kael quickly interjects before Melinda has a chance to continue.

"We'll start with mana. Everything in the world around us has mana. Living creatures can create a mana core after a certain age and use that core to interact with the mana in our surroundings," and to emphasize her point she pulls water mana from the air to form a sphere of water in her unoccupied hand.

"We absorb mana from the outside into our bodies to grow our core. How strong our core increases the influence we can exert on our surroundings. The mana that we store has many uses from strengthening the body to creating its representative element. Eventually, if you get strong enough, your mana core will start to produce mana of your own."

"Every creature has its own elemental affinities. This will influence what kind of mana they interact well with. I was born with an affinity for light and water mana."

A sphere of light, one which originates from Melinda's hand, joins the sphere of water.

"Most people will have the same affinities their whole lives, but it's possible to gain or lose your affinity for certain elements too. Having multiple affinities makes you more versatile, but it also hinders you. In order to grow a core with multiple affinities, you need to absorb more mana than ones with fewer affinities. This means that unless you are extremely talented or have access to better resources, your growth will be slower than others the more affinities you try to maintain. Many people have faded into mediocrity by biting off more than they can chew."

Kael scrunches up his face as he thinks long and hard about what Melinda is teaching him.

"Where is the mana core mama? Can I see yours?"

Melinda chuckles a bit and the world seems to light up a bit before her face ponders a bit.

"Well to be honest I don't really know and most other people don't know either. When I sense my mana core, I feel like it is inside me. However, as far as I know, current research has not discovered a physical location in the body where the mana core resides. We know that mana cores dissipate and return back to the environment after a person dies. Sometimes strong mana cores will crystallize and form a mana crystal, a concentrated form of mana. Sorry I can't show you my core Kael."

Melinda slightly feels worried at the prospect of disappointing Kael and hurting his interest in the topic.

Kael gives Melinda a gentle smile and her heartbeat slows as she is lulled into serenity. "It's fine mama. I'll know when I get my own core."

He nods his head as if to affirm his future designs. Melinda continues to lead Kael onward to enjoy the scenery.

Eventually, the two of them arrive in a clearing in the forest. They see several brown-furred bunnies with a horn on their head grazing.

"Mama, floofer!" Kael points towards the fluffle of bunnies before escaping from Melinda's grasp and charging towards them.

"Be careful Kael," Melinda warns while entering a stance to prepare to intervene. Horned-rabbits are not particularly dangerous, but if forced, the males will jump towards foes with their horns pointed out to protect their herd. They generally have a strong affinity with wind and will use it to increase their speed.

Melinda's preparations are ruined when an exceptionally strange sight occurs. All of the rabbits look over at Kael before half of them suddenly bolt away from him. The other half all stare at him quizzically.

Despite half the fluffle of bunnies standing still right in front of him, Kael bolts after the other half that is running away shouting, "Come back floofers! I need to pet you!."

Even stranger as Kael runs past the stationary rabbits, the second half all start to follow him.

What follows is an extremely comical scene where all the creatures except Melinda in the clearing are running in a circle where half of the rabbits are running away from Kael, while the other half is running after him.

After fifteen minutes of this Kael falls into a bed of flowers exhausted. The rabbits that were running away pick a spot to graze far from Kael, while the other half graze on the flowers around him.

Melinda walks up to Kael and peers down at him with one eyebrow raised in a confused expression as she scans the neighboring rabbits. They appear to be smaller than the ones that ran away.

"Mama, make the floofers come back," Kael whines in a spoiled tone.

"Why don't you play with the rabbits that aren't running away?"

"The biggest floof is over there." Kael points over to a large rabbit at the back of the other half of the bunnies.

Melinda is slightly troubled and wants to indulge Kael, but also realizes the request is coming from an absurd place. Her eyes light up as her gaze passes over one of the nearby rabbits.

She bends down and picks it up. The rabbit remains calm as Melinda lays the rabbit down on Kael's chest. She gives a slight grin like a parent might when they know they are about to trick their child.

"That one may be the biggest, but this rabbit is surely the fluffiest floof."

Kael looks down on the rabbit on his chest. He pulls a flower from the field and puts it in front of the rabbit for it to eat. As the rabbit begins to nibble the flower with quick tiny bites, Kael pets the rabbit with a gentleness unlike the zeal he had displayed earlier.

"Well I suppose fluffier floof is better."

Melinda has a warm smile as Kael goes around giving gentle scritches to all the well behaved rabbits. Having played enough, Melinda and Kael finally leave. A small horde of rabbits follow them until the edge of the clearing before Melinda and Kael disappear into the forest returning home.